Record-Breaking Thread

Saturday - Nice swim yesterday, and the new goggles worked great. Even nicer was the listening session that afternoon. I'm trying some vibration isolators on my CD player and their effect is quite audible, though with some interesting side issues.

Yeah, it's sort of a good news / bad news situation. Damping vibration and removing smearing from the sound image allows for better overall apprehension of the music, but it can also make the top octave or two sound brighter, more digital in character.

So I'm going to do a fair amount of listening for the next few days and have my best friend over to get his take on what my system is doing.

My father and I have been attending a NASCAR race each year for the past few years. Always within driving distance. Watkins Glen, New Hampshire, and last year, Pocono. He pays for all of it, I drive. That's the deal.

Anyway, this year, we were undecided on where to go next. So, my dad offered another suggestion. "What about one of those driving experiences?", he said. "They have one at Pocono. Check it out." I did. They offer a few, actually. You can hitch a ride in a stock car if you're so inclined. Or, drive one yourself around the "Tricky Triangle". They also have various exotic car packages that allow you to benefit from the road course contained within the infield and utilizing parts of the main track.

I perused the options and decided that, while the stock car experience would be pretty cool, since I was given my druthers, a Ferrari would be preferable. Dad set it up, so this June (the day after my birthday to be precise) I'll be piloting a 458 Italia; making every effort to keep the shiny side up. Happy birthday to me!!

Stumbled across this today when the wife and I were on our way home from lunch. It’s a Honda Beat, made between 1991 and 1996. Yes, it is right hand drive, and much smaller than even these pics make it seem. The body and interior are in pretty rough shape. As you can see, someone hacked up the rear bumper cover to install what I can only suspect is a “fart can” muffler. Sigh... Being a Honda, however, it is most likely mechanically sound. Unless, of course, the installer of the aforementioned muffler messed with the engine too. Hard to say.

Sunday - It was fun to watch both the Colts and the Cowboys exceed expectations yesterday (my expectations, at least!). They both played hard, and while I don't know how much further up the ladder they'll climb, it'll keep the playoffs interesting, at the least.

Also, it looks as though we'll be dropping Spectrum's cable TV service in favor of streaming, in an effort to save a bit of bread here. In fact, I watched the Seahawks-Cowboys game on Hulu with next to no problem. I'll be intrigued to see how things sort from here...

Spectrum has this tendency to periodically raise prices for TV to the point that people, like us, kick them to the curb. I can't understand how that business model is successful these days. People do have options.

We kicked Spectrum to the curb for tv some time ago, use playstation vue. It has unlimited dvr, rewind, etc. that works flawlessly. Got rid of Netflix over a year ago too. They quit shipping movies on the weekend, and half of the old movies we wanted to watch were no longer available. And the price kept going higher. Set up a raspberry and can watch almost any show or movie for free, including ALL of the ones unavailable to us on netflix dvd.

We have friends who were paying $150 a month to Optimum for cable and after they switched to YouTube TV, Optimum came back and offered them the full TV service they had before for the same price they were paying for YouTube. They declined but it tells you how badly the cable companies are getting killed when they'd match YouTube's price. I knew they'd negotiate a lower price but first time I've heard one match a low monthly streaming price.

Monday - Missed the Eagles game, but it was very satisfying to watch the Ravens go down to the Chargers ... and it'll be even more so if the Browns can sweep them next year, an event which, after this year, feels more and more within the realm of possibility.

Browns are on the rise for sure, I think they have a good shot at making the playoffs next year. Talk about a turn around. Meanwhile over in Pittsburg they are firing everyone but Tomlin. When will the Rooneys realize that Tomlin is the problem? I don’t know a single Steelers fan at this point who doesn’t think Tomlin needs to go. Oh well, maybe they can trade AB for a QB since Big Ben can’t have more than one or two seasons left. I’m surprised he hasn’t pulled a him or me thing like Rodgers did.

Cabinets, counter, island, recessed lights and everything else including the kitchen sink was gone before noon. We have the complete absence of kitchen. Less than 4 hours to take it all out. Possibly 6 weeks to put the new stuff back in. These guys are good and more concerned with doing it right then doing it fast but their experience and focus is moving things at impressive speed. No big surprises behind the walls or ceilings so 5 hours in we are cautiously optimistic. :-)

Biggest adjustment is not having a kitchen sink and counter. Washing stuff in our bathroom sink with no counter space is already old. My wife and two cats were up a tree initially with invasion upset. It's weird when a group of strangers invade your personal space and literally rip it apart... Even when you've invited them!

Liking the clean pallet that used to be our kitchen/family room. It's where we spend the majority of our time here so we'll enjoy the new stuff many hours every day. I remind myself of that every time I fish a spoon or cereal bowl out of a cardboard box under the dining room table. Change is good...And expensive!!

Tuesday - It would seem as though Alabama is NOT invincible, and judging from the score (I missed the game), they are indeed downright vincible! All the more reason NOT to have the college football playoffs limited to four teams, IMHO.

Tuesday - It would seem as though Alabama is NOT invincible, and judging from the score (I missed the game), they are indeed downright vincible! All the more reason NOT to have the college football playoffs limited to four teams, IMHO.

Should be at least 8 teams. Our local team, UCF, belonged after the '17 undefeated season, but was locked out. They beat Auburn in the bowl game, who had beaten both teams playing in the title game.